Don't be fooled: "Near-Earth" asteroids are considered anything flying within 36 million miles of the earth.

For some context, the moon is 1/4 million miles away. It takes about three days to travel from Earth to the moon.

"This telescope is the most prolific telescope in history to discover near-Earth asteroids. I'm lucky enough to have been the person who has discovered three Earth impacters. No one else in the world has done that," he said.

The asteroid he spotted Saturday morning was named "2018 LA."

It was about 6 feet wide and was 1/4 million miles away when Kowalski saw it.

It took about nine hours to travel that distance and make impact with the Earth, when it barreled through the atmosphere Saturday. The impact was caught on camera from a man in South Africa's security footage and was posted to YouTube.

"I work for the best near-Earth asteroid survey in the world," he said. "We've detected nearly half of all the known near-Earth asteroids and comets in history. The majority of those have been discovered with this telescope right here. Because of the way we approach our jobs, we have high potential of discovering these impacting asteroids."

While Kowalski can detect a whole lot from inside the telescope's dome, one thing he couldn't narrow down was the specific spot of impact.

In the past, with enough notice, impact location of other impacters has been able to be narrowed down to within a mile and impact time was timed out to specificity of life-saving seconds.

Five days after impact, "2018 LA" has not been found.

Kowalski said they discover hundreds of near-Earth asteroids every year at this site, but catching them on the telescope camera before they impact with the Earth is incredibly rare. It has only occurred three times in the last 10 years and Kowalski has witnessed them all.

So what's his secret formula?

"I have no secret," he said laughing. "I just happen to be the person sitting in the chair when the telescope is pointed at the right part of the sky. It is a team effort and I am just lucky enough to be on the right team. The winning team."

The right, winning team is comprised of about nine telescopes up at the Steward Observatory. Some of them are manned by researchers like him and others are automated.

About eight employees rotate on any given shift, Kowalski said, as research specialists monitoring the near-Earth universe.

The Mt. Lemmon SkyCenter is one of the most efficient observatories in the world because of the fortunate desert climate with typically clear skies.

"In some instances we can go several months without being clouded out," Kowalski stated.

All employees and telescopes work with one goal in mind.

We are all lucky Kowalski and his colleagues go into work and we are even luckier he's in the chair.

"Part of the job is essentially liking people," he said. "Our job is (keeping) people from being injured and killed. Potentially, not just a small number of them, but if we found something large that was going to impact Earth it would make humankind extinct. I don't want to see humans end up like dinosaurs."

Drivers headed towards the Ina Road and I-10 interchange need to budget a little extra time into their drive because construction crews are re-routing westbound traffic on Ina Road to the southern side of the new divided roadway.

Drivers headed towards the Ina Road and I-10 interchange need to budget a little extra time into their drive because construction crews are re-routing westbound traffic on Ina Road to the southern side of the new divided roadway.

Beyond their war of words, the row touched on several sensitive issues in Trump's White House, including a lack of racial diversity, security in the executive mansion and a culture that some there feel borders on paranoia.

Beyond their war of words, the row touched on several sensitive issues in Trump's White House, including a lack of racial diversity, security in the executive mansion and a culture that some there feel borders on paranoia.

On Tuesday, Ford Motor Credit Company filed an objection to Reagor-Dykes Auto Group's request to hire a Chief Restructuring Officer, saying Reagor-Dykes Auto Group "created their own financial mess" and the company is not following the rules set in the court's interim cash collateral order by the bankruptcy judge.

On Tuesday, Ford Motor Credit Company filed an objection to Reagor-Dykes Auto Group's request to hire a Chief Restructuring Officer, saying Reagor-Dykes Auto Group "created their own financial mess" and the company is not following the rules set in the court's interim cash collateral order by the bankruptcy judge.